The present invention relates to the field of loose leaf notebooks.
The familiar two or three split ring loose leaf notebook has a spring toggle mechanism within an elongated housing, together with toggle actuation members which cause the split rings to open, to enable the user to slip punched hole sheets within the notebook. The split rings are thereafter closed, whereby terminal portions of the rings normally abut each other to form a closed ring for securing the punched hole sheets. Upon frequently opening and closing of the rings to insert and remove the punched sheets, the terminal portions of the rings, which upon manufacture abut each other, often become laterally misaligned, which in turn produces tearing of the paper at the punched holes. This undesirable effect normally calls for the use of the familiar circular reinforcement stickers, which are applied about the peripheral areas of the punched holes. Furthermore, lateral misalignment of the split rings looks sloppy.
Thus, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a novel loose leaf notebook paper retention mechanism which eliminates the aforesaid split rings.